


Perfumes of Arabia

by AellaIrene



Category: Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Genre: Genderbending, Time Period: Reign of Ezar Vorbarra
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-09
Updated: 2011-07-09
Packaged: 2017-10-21 05:15:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/221322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AellaIrene/pseuds/AellaIrene
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>Fic Promptly: Vorkosigan, Serg, Ezar had no sons, only a daughter.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	Perfumes of Arabia

"I hear," Ges breathes into the shell of her ear, as she turns with him in the restrained movements of the waltz, "That your husband's found a Betan, out there in the galaxy."

"Better than finding the clap," she murmurs, and sees the way his mouth thins in a smile as he twirls her.

It takes him that dance, the next, supper, and a highly inappropriate tete a tete in the Rose Garden before he gets to the point.

"Your father is old, my dear," he tells her, as if she hadn't noticed, "And once he dies, you will be unprotected. And after what happened to my poor, sweet sister..."

She's seen the ImpSec reports. Aral didn't kill his first wife, because when Marianne Vorrutyer Vorkosigan died, he was murdering both of her lovers. Even her father wouldn't marry her to a man who had killed his own wife, despite the hypocrisy of it.

"Unprotected, Admiral?" she says, looking shyly up at him. "Surely not."

"The Hero of Komarr is a powerful man," he says, and his so-mobile mouth twists.

"The Hero of Escobar could be more powerful still," she observes, and looks down at the rose in her lap.

"If we go to Escobar," Ges mutters, faintly sulky, and she raises her eyes to his again, all limpid brown expectancy.

"We shall, you know. And Aral will go with you. My father could not leave the Hero of Komarr, his own son-in-law, out of the action."

Ges places his thumb against her cheek, and chucks her under the chin, like a child.

"Battles are always good, for promotions."

"Oh yes," she agrees. "There will be plenty of time for promotions, after Escobar."


End file.
